German PAL DVD vs USA BLU-RAY (mouse over to compare)
American Graffiti is one of my favourite films. One of the reasons that I love it is the way it was shot on my favourite format, 2-perf Techniscope at 2.35:1. For years I have hoped to see an original Technicolor dye-transfer print but they...
Advice: Buy the new Dark Star DVD. Video quality is vastly improved considering it was shot in 16mm in 1974. Colors are vibrant now for one thing. I'm watching the long documentary on disc 2 now and it is excellent. However, the menu encoding seems screwy, ie. I had to monkey around to get to...
What are the implications of this new paradigm for film restoration? Could knowledge of how to properly handle vintage 16, 35, 65 and 70mm film elements of various types eventually be forgotten?
"The Version You Don't Want" to See is comical. The spiderwalk scene is a lead balloon within the context of the film and what makes it worse is that Friedkin added CGI blood spewing from Regan's mouth when he put that clunker back in. The faux-subliminal images are inept and cheezy like...
The UK release was delayed by a week, so I should have my set within the next three days. I have the available reviews and it sounds like an audacious, exhaustive and ingenius piece of work. I have been a NY fan since 1998 (I was 18) when I bought Decade for £22 ($35) and never looked back. I...
The previous 2-disc SD transfer was far too dark, as the DVD Beaver comparison reveals. The BD may be a little too bright when viewed on my PC monitor when compared to my plasma TV which often seem to be the case. The cropping/framing on the BD is better. The original mono soundtrack really...
VCI are finally going to release a SE of Dark Star later this year: IMDb :: Boards :: Dark Star (1974) :: Calling all Dark Star fans!!! I spotted this last night after watching the UK DVD via online rental.
I have a lot of admiration for Waterloo (and War and Peace) and I have owned the UKR2 DVD for about five years. I bought it for £5 ($9). It's a DVD-5 (single layer) btw, though it is generally very good for a transfer made in 1999. But I'd love to see a Blu-ray. The main problem with the...
I remember the days when I bought 5-7 PER WEEK! Oh, how times have changed. This year, I bought around 30 DVDs. I bought an all-region (ABC, 1-6) Blu-Ray player recently and have a few titles, but things are moving so slow on the BD front that it hardly compares to my blitz out years of...
It has always seemed to me that the 35mm film elements used for video editions of this film have been poor. None have looked like prime elements, ie. original negative, dupe neg, interpositive. They all have looked like 4th or 5th generation. And they always appear either too dark or too bright...
I don't know yet - no websites list the spec. The disc should have arrived today, but it should be here on friday. I have held onto my SD edition, in any case.
For a Few Dollars More is also available in Italy on Blu-Ray. Tempting. Very, very tempting. MGM really ought to get Blu-Rays out in America and the UK with original, restored mono and branching for 160 and 180-minute versions of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The extras on the SD editions were...
I have the UK SD-DVD of Zulu, which I feel looks very good, though the R1 MGM may be better. I acquired a chipped region A-B-C Blu-Ray (with multi-region SD-DVD) this week and have the Zulu Blu-Ray on my online rental list. The screencaps of the Zulu Blu seem to have mild EE in places, but is it...
The R1 and UK R2 transfers are vertically stretched from the full 2.35:1 ratio to a 1.78:1 ratio. In addition to the R1 edition, I have the French R2 which is the true 2.35:1 but is a wee bit less detailed than the other transfer. I have heard a rumour that a new R1 edition is in the works -...
Great film. I own the UK edition. The German edition has a 60-minute documentary on Dalton Trumbo, btw. Dalton Trumbo: Rebel in Hollywood (2006). Review. I'll be interested to see the specs for the R1 edition.
Why Best Buy? Why not Amazon? It's the lack of outside-USA shipping that arses it up for many people. Best Buy don't even ship to Canada, right? Wankers.
I'll pay $20 via Paypal to a middleman for WORLD WITHOUT END/SATELLITE IN THE SKY. Some of the Paramount titles from Legend Films were Best Buy exclusives and that still hasn't been resolved. Again, $20 for Phase IV, folks!
I emailed Legend Films about the Best Buy exclusive controversy and recieved a reply stating that they have had many emails regarding this and that they are looking into the matter and that those who inquired about this matter will recieve an update soon. I'll be sure to post the response as...
I have the new 3-disc set. The transfer of the director's cut looks identical to the Australian and German editions that I used to own. The transfer of the original cut looks like an old (mid-1990s) digital master that was 1.66:1 non-anamorphic that was scaled-up to 1.66:1 anamorphic, despite...
It was bad ethics on Jon Lidolt's part. He dumped a rumour in our laps for us to deal with while he went cruising for burgers. I searched Google for about 20-30 minutes for a respectable or semi-respectable article on this and found diddly squat. Now I know why.